1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a board connector which is used by mounting on a printed circuit board (PCB) accommodated in an electric junction block for an automobile, for example.
2. Related Art
In the board connector, in general, terminals are mounted by penetrating the connector housing having a hood portion such that connection ends of the terminals to mating connector terminals project into the hood portion and the other connection ends of the terminals to the PCB project on the opposite side of the hood portion and are bent in L-shape (see, for example, JP-A2005-123120 Publication).
The connector housing supplies a function to hold the terminals, a function to hold a fitting state to the mating connector, and a function to fix the connector to the board. The terminals supply a function to electrically connect the mating terminals, a function to fix the connector to the board by being soldered to the board, and a function to electrically connect circuits on the board.
As such a board connector, there is known a board connector in which a plurality of terminals having different sizes are arranged in one connector housing. For example, in a board connector which is mounted to a PCB for an electric junction lock (or, electric connection box) of an automobile, thick terminals of power supply system for connecting with a battery and thin terminals of distribution system for distributing the power are arranged in one connector housing by dividing these terminals into groups.
FIG. 6 shows one example of the above-mentioned board connector.
In the board connector 110 as shown in this figure, a connector housing 111 is horizontally divided into several spaces F1, F2, F3 and a group of thick terminals 21 is arranged in the space F1 and groups of thin terminals 22 are arranged into the spaces F2, F3. In other words, the terminals 21,22 are grouped in accordance with their sizes.
However, as described above, when the terminals 21,22 are grouped in accordance with their sizes, a lot of void spaces may be formed in the connector housing 110 in some combinations of the terminals, and the total size of the connector 110 may become large. In addition, since the terminals 21,22 having different sizes are arranged in the same level in the connector housing, the arrangement balance of the conductor pattern becomes undesirable on the PCB to which the board connector is mounted.